The present invention relates to disk drive storage units and computer systems that contain them.
The telecommunications industry relies upon large banks of servers to store and manage enormous volumes of data. These servers are generally mounted into racks that are positioned on opposite sides of a corridor, which enables access to them. When used for telecommunications applications, servers must ordinarily have a chassis length that does not exceed 20 inches. That constraint inhibits use of servers with chassis that house conventional 12 inch by 13 inch baseboards and typical front to back mounted disk drives, as such chassis will exceed the 20 inch chassis length specification.
Accordingly, there is a need for a computer system that includes a disk drive storage unit and a conventional baseboard, in which the computer system""s chassis is no longer than 20 inches. There is a need for such a computer system that is xe2x80x9chot swappable,xe2x80x9d i.e., one that permits a disk drive to be replaced without having to power down the system. The hot swap drawer assembly of the present invention enables such a computer system.